Letta vows to tackle conflicts of interest in Berlusconi jab

'Now is the time, Italians have waited a long time'

(ANSA) - Rome, January 24 - Premier Enrico Letta says his
2014 government agenda will crack down on conflicts of interest,
making an indirect reference to ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and
his media empire.

"Now is the time to forge rules regarding conflicts of
interest. Italians have been waiting for it for a long time, and
now we're going to deal with it," the center-left premier told
Italian television program Otto e Mezzo.
"It will be one of the points we discuss in coming weeks.
I would like to get to the heart of issues pertaining to the
triumph of lawfulness. There are too many conflicts (of
interest) in the country".
There has been talk of a conflict-of-interest law ever
since three-time premier Berlusconi, who owns Italy's three
biggest commercial TV channels as well as its largest publishing
group, entered politics in 1994 and swept to victory with his
center-right Forza Italia party.

Observers note there is already a clause in voting rules
declaring ineligible anyone with a State concession - a
provision that has never been applied to Berlusconi, who was
kicked out of parliament late last year over a binding tax-fraud
conviction at his Mediaset empire.

Berlusconi loyalist Daniela Santanchè, an MP in his
center-right Forza Italia party, said the premier's comments
were partisan, and likened him to judges Berlusconi accuses of
left-wing bias in his numerous legal entanglements.
"Even Letta uses Berlusconi, pulling out conflicts of
interest for a reckoning within the (center left)," she added.